net charge and fundamental particle questions?

Question

How do you calculate the net charge of an entire atom
and the net charge of the atomic nucleus?
how can you tell if something is a fundamental particle?

Answer 1

The net charge of an entire atom is Zero, since the positive charge of the protons in the nucleus is balanced by the negative charge of the electron cloud.

Net charge of an atomic nucleus is the nuber of protons multiplied by the electrical charge of a proton. Neutrons don't count since they are electrically neutral.

A particle is a fundamental particle if it doesn't disintegrate or decay into another. Electrons are fundamental particles. Neutrons are not, since they dissociate or decay into a proton and an electron (called Beta partilce). Protons are probably fundamental particles.

Answer 2

A fundamental particle is defined as a particle which cannot be broken down into smaller components. There are two types of these called quarks and leptons. These are based on observations made by smashing particles with very high velocities and studying the results.
Net charge on an atom is based on the number of electrons, which are negative, and the number of protons, which are positive. You simply add the charges to come up with the net charge.
The net charge on a nucleus is also calculated the same way.

Answer 3

You count the net charge of anything by counting all the positive charges and subtracting all the negative charges. For an atom this would be # protons - # electrons (in units of e, the magnitude of charge for an electron/proton). An atomic nucleus contains protons and neutrons (so called because there neutral and have no charge), so just count the protons. Most atoms are neutral, the exception is ionised atoms, which have defficient or extra electrons.

You can only ever tell if something ISN'T a fundamental particle, by successfully breaking it apart into constituent parts. This is done by ballistic-ally firing some other particles at it and examining the resulting "shrapnel".

Answer 4

The net charge of a standard atom with equal numbers of protons and electrons is 0 C. The negative charge of the electrons cancel the positive charge of the protons. Knowing that the protons have a positive charge, you also know that the the nucleus has a positive charge. It has been determined experimentally that the charge of a proton is +1.60 x 10^(-19) C and the charge of an electron is -1.60 x 10^(-19) C. So I guess you'd calculate the charges by using those two values and multiplying by the appropriate numbers of protons and electrons.

An electron is supposed to be a fundamental (or elementary) particle (its a type of lepton), which is a particle that is not known to be made up of anything else. Protons and neutrons are made up of 3 quarks...so quarks are also elementary particles.

Answer 5

Fundamental particles, as of what they're teaching right now in intro chem courses, are protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons have a charge of +1, neutrons have no charge, and electrons have a charge of -1. (Actually, measured in coulombs, protons have a charge of 1.60 * 10^-19 C, but I don't think you need to know that yet.) Anyway, to calculate the net charge of an atom, you just take the number of protons and subtract from that the number of electrons, because protons and electrons have equal and opposite charges. The nucleus of an atom is made up of protons and neutrons, and since only the protons have charge, the net charge of the nucleus is just equal to the number of protons (which is the atomic number on the periodic table).

Answer 6

Isn't the net charge on an atom going to be neutral, because the number of protons and electrons cancel each other out. The neutrons are neutral and so don't matter.

The protons are positive and are found in the nucleus, the neutrons are also found in the nucleus and are neutral. Thus making the nucleus positively charged.

Finally I don't think you can tell for sure which are fundamental and which aren't. You'll have to memorise them, Electrons are fundamental, whereas protons and neutrons aren't

Answer 7

The atom is made of of a Nucleous and electrons which are electrostatically locked in by electrostatic gravity power in to a constainment structure which makes up the Atom.
The Nucleous is formed by protons and neutrons. The Neutron being heavier that the protons serves to keep the protons locked in to a structure. The Charge of the nucleous comes from the protons which is the energy of interaction to keep the electron locked in to a structure forming the containment of the atoms. So the greater the charge of the nucleous which depends on the Number of protons all containing the same electrostatic energy of interaction which balances that of the electrons ,thus making up a stable atom structure. The electron is the lightest atomic mass of the elementary atomic particles. In order to know how much of a charge in the atom you need to count each protons in the Nucleous from the periodic table of element. The total number of protons balances the total number of electrons .
Its like a see-saw in order to balance it in equilibrium ,you must have equal energies on both sides of it.
It is based on Newtons 3rd law which basically says" to every energy there is an equal and opposite balancing energy."